Omega Energy, an Indiana Corporation, is an independent energy company engaged in oil and gas exploration, development and production. We currently participate in these activities through the interests we hold in oil and gas exploration and development projects in the Illinois Basin.

While the name has changed many times over the years the evolution of Omega Energy can be traced through one family. It all started in 1947 when Davis "Slim" Lambert and Paul Hood headquartered Lambert & Hood, an oil pumping and transportation company in Mt. Carmel, Illinois. The company'operations spread throught mid and southern Illinois and into Indiana and Kentucky. V.G. Greer, Slim Lambert's brother-in-law, ran the daily operations of the company and was their primary crude oil buyer. In 1974, upon Slim Lambert's death, Lambert & Hood was aquired by Big Heart Oil Company out of Tulsa, Oklamohma. Big Heart was later acquired by Koch Industries. Koch Industries owns or operates about 4,000 miles of pipelines that trasport crude oil and natural gas. They are the largest independently owned oil company in the United States. During the two acquisitions, V.G. was retained by both companies to run their Illinois Basin operations and he would remain one of the largest oil buyers in the Illinois Basin for close to 40 years. Just prior to his retirement, V.G. introduced his son-in-law, Robert Barbee, into the family business. Robert was successful on his first drilling venture and he would become a partner in 3 separate oil companies. Robert was directly involved in over 30 drilling ventures from 1978 up until 1985 when the price of oil dropped to $9 a barrel. This rapid drop in prices caused the independent oil and gas drilling and production infrastructure in most of the United States to collapse and resulted in most of the people in the Illinios Basin's oil business to permanently retire. See charts below (click images to enlarge.)

U.S. Rotary Rig Count 1974-2005 Crude Oil and Natural Gas Drilling

U.S. Rotary Rig Count Percent Exploring for Crude Oil

As the charts above indicate, the risk of lower prices has kept drilling activity quite low in the past few years until just recently. Much of the industry infrastructure was dismantled in the mid-80s when oil prices crashed, and as a result of this "bust" the industry has been very disciplined in its exploration and development investment activities during the current up cycle. The impact of the industry's underinvestment in new production capacity is a slower rate of new production coming on line, which helps insure robust oil and gas prices in the years ahead.

Recognizing the strong projections for the price of crude in the years ahead, Jake Barbee, grandson of V.G., formed Omega Energy along with his father Robert Barbee in 2005. Omega is an oil and gas exploration, development and produciton company based in Indidana. With a strong incentive to build a successful 3rd generation oil company, Omega contracted with the top Certified Petroleum Geologists in the industry to complete an extensive geological survey on potential prospects. Based on the analysis of those reports and the prior knowledge of Robert Barbee regarding specific fields, Omega has secured the drilling rights to fields inside the Illinois Basin with proven or probable commercial reserves of oil.

Our strategy is to continue the development of our current exploration projects and to expand our operations by acquiring additional exploration opportunities and properties. By leveraging the 60 plus years of combined Oil and Gas experience of our management team and by focusing on developmental prospects, (step-outs from known oil producing pay zones) we are able to manage the risk of our portfolio and maximize the return on investment for our Partners. Our strategic, regional relationships go back 3 generations and give us access to over 80,000 acres of oil and gas rich properties. Our objective is to become the largest independent producer of oil & gas in the Illinois Basin within the next 5 years.